Mateo plated eggs, bacon and toast on two plates before he sat beside Maia at the island and poured her a glass of orange juice while he contemplated what he was going to say. "I guess I should start by telling you the whole story of why I'm here."

Maia nodded, taking a sip of her coffee. "That'd be a good place to start."

"Right," Mateo said, pushing around the eggs on his plate. "I already told you that my reputation was damaged by my ex who I trusted to keep our relationship private."

"Yes and now that I know you're a prince it makes sense why your family is so concerned about their public image."

"Yeah. I've always been careful to keep my private life out of the public eye, well, most of it at least. I'm not a stranger to the media catching me at wild parties or socializing with the people of Oost den Burg as if I wasn't a royal."

Maia raised an eyebrow. "That doesn't seem so terrible. You just sound like a man of the people."

A smile tugged at his lips as he nodded. "I was nicknamed 'The Common Prince' because unlike my family, I don't care about social status. I was born into privilege and I have all the comforts of it, but I lived my life, more or less, like one of the people."

"Right." Maia smirked. "Because randomly buying a ranch on a whim, changing your name and running away from your life is very common."

"No, you're right. It's not," he said, dragging a hand through his hair. "But I had to remove myself to save my family's reputation."

"You mentioned you were here for damage limitation," she said, eating a piece of toast. "So what happened? What did your ex do?"

"She made a lot of money exposing my private life," he said, staring into his cup of coffee as he thought back to that painful and embarrassing moment. "I'm pretty open when it comes to having sex and I'm not shy about doing most things."

"Mm, yeah. I kind of gathered that. I'm guessing you have a kind of NDA with the people you're with."

"Exactly and everyone I'd been with respected it, until I dated Saskia," he said, shaking his head. "We were together for a little over a year and I thought I was in love with her, matter of fact, I nearly proposed to her. I didn't want anyone else and I was happy to just be with her."

"But she wasn't in love with you and she was using you for clout."

"Yeah." He sighed. "And I fell for all of it," he said, looking away from her. "I don't really like talking about this. It was humiliating what she did."

"It's okay," Maia said, sliding her hand over his. "I think I can put the pieces together. She lured you in, got you to trust her and then exploited you and put all your affairs on display, right?"

"Yes, but it was worse than that," he said, curling his fingers around hers. "I...I don't remember any of the pictures or videos she sold to the press. I didn't recognize the people I was with and I barely remember the party we were at."

"Mateo," Maia said, squeezing his hand. "Did she drug you?"

He nodded. "And I don't know why or what I did to make her want to do that, but it caused a lot of damage to my family's image," he said, cringing. "The pictures were bad and the press didn't blur any of it or leave anything to the imagination."

He heaved a heavy sigh. "The charity events my step mother ran were overshadowed by the constant media coverage of what I'd done. Adrie had to postpone her wedding, Eline couldn't go anywhere without being pestered by the media and the people wanted me to step down from my duties because of my indiscretions which caused my father to expedite his announcement to name Jorien as his successor."

"Holy shit," Maia breathed. "I'm so sorry," she said. "I...yeah, I understand why you left. I would've too."

"I felt like I had to. I couldn't keep putting my family through that and at least if I was gone, it would appease the people so my family could move on from what I'd done."

"But you didn't do anything," Maia huffed. "She drugged you! Didn't anyone think it was odd that the woman you were with for over a year made money off of you? Didn't anyone come to your defense on this?"

"My friends wanted to, but I didn't want them to get caught up in that media shitstorm. It was my fault for trusting Saskia and I needed to do whatever I could to make it stop."

"That's so fucked up," she said, shaking her head. "So things must be better if your father wants you to come home."

"No, not exactly. Jorien isn't capturing the hearts and minds of the people like my father and the council thought he would. I guess there are some rumors gaining traction that he used Saskia to sabotage my birthright and funnily enough," he smirked. "The people and the council want me to return to be king."

"Talk about whiplash," Maia scoffed. "Is that what you want?"

Mateo shook his head. "No. Even though I'm the first born, I've never wanted the crown and I grew up knowing that Jorien would be king."

"Did Jorien know that?"

"Yes and I know what you're thinking. He didn't sabotage anything and he wouldn't have used Saskia. Jorien and I don't always see eye to eye, but he's not malicious like that. Saskia fucked me over all on her own."

"Okay." Maia took a drink of her coffee. "So, if the people and this council want you to come home and all is forgiven, why did your father lie about you being engaged to me?"

Mateo sighed, shaking his head. "For the optics of it. It looks good to the council and the people if in my absence, I got my life together and I'm coming home engaged to, and I quote, 'a lovely and respectable woman' like you."

"Well I'm flattered that your father thinks so highly of me." Maia laughed. "I'm sorry, but he must've really read into that picture he saw of us."

"Yeah and I'm sure our security team provided him with a dossier on you."

"That quick? I mean I don't know when Sven was taking pictures of us, but it had to be from last night."

"It was and the royal security team have learned to be quick and thorough at their jobs after my incident. They had a new passport and credentials for me done in a matter of hours when I told them I was leaving."

"No kidding," she said. "So, where does your last name come from? Did they make it up for you?"

"No, I chose to use Casparij. It's my mother's maiden name and I knew no one would recognize it. I'm Prince Hendrik to the people and Mateo to my family and close friends."

"I still can't believe you're a prince," Maia said, dragging a hand over her face. "Thank you for telling me all of this. You didn't have to. I understand why you kept who you are a secret and honestly, if I were in your shoes, I would've too."

"I'm sorry I had to tell you like this, but thank you for understanding and now that you know the embarrassing details about my life as a prince." Mateo sighed. "I'd understand if you didn't want to keep pretending we're together."

"I still want to do this."

Mateo's eyes grew wide and his heart thumped. "But this won't be like dealing with your ex. We'd be expected to do public engagements, people will be way more skeptical of our relationship than this town." He shook his head. "This isn't going to be a few months of pretending."

"Mateo," Maia said, grasping his hand. "I know. I'm fully capable of handling myself at lavish parties and engagements. I did it for two years with Sven."

"Yeah, but it's not just that. You'll be expected to learn a whole new way of life. That's going to be hard with someone you don't have feelings for. And what about your book and the film deal?" Mateo pulled his hand away from hers. "No, I can't expect you to put your life on hold for me. I can figure out something."

Maia raised an eyebrow. "I wouldn't be putting anything on hold for you. I can write anywhere. I've just been given all the time I want to finish Donny and Tati's book and the film deal is going to take time. It's not like I'm going to be held hostage in Oost den Burg, right?"

"Well no, but it can feel like that. Everything you do will be scrutinized either by the royal council or by the press. You said you don't like being in the spotlight and that's exactly what will happen," Mateo said, clenching his hand in his lap. "I...I care about you too much to see you have to deal with that because of me and my father's ridiculous announcement."

Maia slid her hand to his cheek and his heart tripped and skipped a beat at the tenderness swirling in her brown eyes. "And I care about you too much to let you do this alone after everything you've done for me."

He sighed, wrapping his fingers around her wrist. "You don't owe me anything, Maia. What I did for you was because I wanted to."

"I know and I want to do this for you. If it makes you feel better, I'm doing this for selfish reasons."

"And what are those?"

"For one, you're practically one of my characters come to life and the truth is, I'm not ready to lose my best friend," she said, biting her lip. "You...you mean a lot to me, Mateo."

It wasn't the confession he was hoping for, not that he expected her to miraculously tell him she was in love with him, but it was comforting to know she cared about him and she didn't want to lose him.

Because he didn't want to lose her either.

"You mean a lot to me too, Maia," he said, pressing a kiss to her palm. "And if you're happy to do this, then I'll do whatever I can to make this as comfortable for you as possible."

"I know you will, but there's another reason I want to do this and you might not like it."

Mateo chuckled at the familiar gleam in her eyes when inspiration struck her. "You want to write about this experience, don't you?"

"I do." She nodded. "I normally wouldn't write about anything in my life, but this is the first time and probably the only time I'll ever get to live the premise of a Damaged Royals book."

"Well, I'm still your muse," he said with a smile tugging at his lips. "It's not like my life hasn't already been put on display, and at least if you're writing about it, I'll know it'll have a happy ending even if it's just fiction."

"Of course, I plan to do our story justice."

Mateo choked out a laugh. "Our story?"

"Yes, my lekker ding." Maia grinned, patting his cheek. "Who else would I base the main characters on?"

"That's true, but delicious thing?" A blush burned over Mateo's cheeks at her choice of endearment for him. "Is that your pet name for me now?"

Maia shrugged. "I'm testing it out. I can't be your fiancée without a pet name for you. You've got one for me."

"I do." He laughed. "But at least mine isn't that cheesy."

Maia pursed her lips. "Well I think of a better one then."

"No, I'm just teasing you." He grinned. "I like it and I'm just glad you're taking all of this so well. I thought you'd still be angry with me."

"I'm not happy that all of this came to light because of Sven," she said, looking away from him. "It hurts to know that you wouldn't have told me who you are if he didn't meddle in your life, but I get it."

"I should've told you everything then," he said, slipping his fingers to her chin and turning her face to him. "I know what we're doing isn't real, but as your friend, I promise not to hide anything from you again and I'm sorry I hurt you. That's the last thing I'd ever want to do."

"And I don't want to hurt you either. Are you sure you can still do this with me?"

"Yes, I know where I stand with you," he said, laughing softly. "As long as you don't give me mixed signals by trying to undress me again, I'll be fine."

Maia choked out a laugh. "Yeah, I'll make sure my signals are more direct. We should probably redraft our boundaries and our backstory."

"True, but first we need to go into town. Dan messaged me before my Dad called. He needs us to make a statement about last night."

"Right. I forgot we needed to do that." She sighed. "I hope they scared the shit out of Sven and he's on his way back to LA," she said, sliding off the stool. "When are we leaving for Oost den Burg, anyway?"

"Our flights have been arranged for Friday. So five days. If that's alright?"

"That's fine. That gives us plenty of time to figure out our story and – oh God." She cringed, sliding a hand to her face.

"What?" Mateo said, sliding off the stool. "What's wrong?"

"I have to tell my sister about this and I don't know how she's going to react, well I do. She's going to be pissed." Maia groaned, twisting her hair between her fingers. "I don't want a lecture from her, but if I don't tell her and she's blindsided by the press contacting her or the agency, that'll be worse."

"Yeah, it will. We'll tell her together after we get back from the station. Your sister is probably the only one who needs to know the truth about what we're doing," Mateo said, taking her hand. "I want to make sure she knows I'm not taking this lightly and I'll do anything to make sure this doesn't impact your image or your career."

"Thank you," she said, squeezing his hand. "She'll probably feel more comfortable with all of this if we tell her together."

"Then that's what we'll do," Mateo said, nodding to the hallway. "Why don't you go get dressed and I'll clean up so we can do what we need in town."

"Yeah, alright." She sighed. "Let's get that out of the way."

Mateo watched Maia shuffle down the hall to the bedroom before he turned away and dragged a hand over his face. As much as he was glad that she accepted what happened to him and was willing to act as his fiancée, her life was going to be turned upside down because of him.

There was so much he needed to do to ensure her comfort and her career wasn't impacted by his father's rash decision.

Heaving a sigh, he picked up their plates and dumped them into the sink. Being her fiancé was going to be difficult. He'd have to guard his heart from falling for her playful banter, tender smiles, and sensuous kisses because there was every possibility that he was in love with her.

And if this was real and they were truly together, he'd probably be making plans to put a ring on her finger anyway.

A/N: So...what do we think of Mateo's sordid past? It's not that horrible, hella embarrassing yes, but I'm a bit concerned about this Saskia woman. I don't understand why she'd do something like that, but then again if she didn't, Maia and Mateo never would've met each other...

What do with think of Maia agreeing to do this with Mateo? I'm kind of annoyed she didn't tell him her feelings after he laid it all out for her, but then again maybe she's right to keep it to herself. I don't know, but Mateo is in love and I hope she doesn't wait too long to tell him the truth!

I'll be back next week with more chapters, but if you don't want to wait, you can read up to chapter 26 on Patreon!